I tried some cous cous cake and weetabix cake at the taster session last week, and they were really nice. even if the syn the cous cous, i think the cake was about 27 syns, I could easily eat 1/4 of it, so that would be about 7 syns, thats not many.
now, I made a normal sponge cake (with splenda) but all other ingredients were the same and the whole cake was 110syns! I made little tiny mini cakes rather than large one and they worked out at 2 1/2 syns each, they were lovely, but at the taster session my cakes were hardly touched and everyone went for the cous cous cake and key lime pie that was there (was lush too)
I thought real cake would be preferable and have a little, but after trying the cous cous cake, I would defo make it and syn it properly and enjoy it a great deal.
having tried it, I would rather eat fewer syns on a cous cous cake then on my sponge cake. you can have a more satisfying amount.
and if people syn it or not, prob wont really make a great deal of difference to their weight loss, unless they are slow losers, close to target, or eating it a lot between other meals.
at the end of the day we all lose weight slightly differently, and eat food in different ways, so we use the skills we learn from SW to adapt our daily eating style to get a weight loss, if we eat cake and lose less - then maybe most of us have the common sense to syn it and be a little more careful with the free foods.
I doubt anyone would say 'its free, so there fore I can have my cake and eat it and still lose weight' because we all know, that whatever diet we are on, they all basically get us to eat fewer calories than we burn up day to day. its just a case of finding a way that fits in with us personally.
as a slow loser, large appetie girl with an underactive thyroid, I think for me I should syn it, if I easily lost a couple of pounds most weeks, then I prob wouldn't syn it, but as 1/2 to 1 lb a week is as much as i can hope for, being a little more careful is a more sensible option for me.
we have to think of ourselves as individual, and what someone else can get away with and still lose weight, we may not be able to.
great debate thread though I love it, and yeah, SW should take a view and stick to it.